#he may not be a lesbian in his physical presentation

[officalgeorgestaniel]

been longing for women so much these past couple of days, i'm starting to wonder if i'm a lesbian

[vasito-de-leche]

Do you have any specific queer headcannons of r1999 characters if so which ones and why?

I wrote a bunch of stuff for this post but then tumblr fucked me up and reloaded without saving it so here we are..... rewriting it all over again ... OAUGH. usually I default to seeing everyone as Vaguely Bisexual and Not Cis until stated otherwise, but you asked for specifics so here we go!

6 is aromantic or demiromantic.

On one hand, it's because I love projecting on my faves. On the other hand, it's because he genuinely doesn't feel like the type of person to be interested in relationships. But this isn't something that's tied to any potential disgust, repulsion or even trauma related to his Revelation and struggle against fate -- to me, 6 just doesn't feel romantic attraction. At the very least, nothing strong enough to consider pursuing. It's not in his priorities. I really dislike this specific thing that fandoms do in which every single character who is introverted, or who happens to be alone/isolated (either by chance or by choice) is secretly lonely, touch starved, pining and desperate for attention and romantic love. It feels like such a huge disrespect for their equally important platonic or familial relationships. 6 already holds a lot of love for his own community and his childhood friends, a type of affection that is shown in his subtle and unique ways. I like it when his character focuses on those aspects instead!

Mesmer Jr. is aromantic and asexual.

In her case, she's the opposite of 6. Mesmer Jr.'s trauma and OCD is much too intense for her to even consider the idea of an emotional or physical bond with anyone. She's disgusted at the idea of touching others so casually, and she's afraid at the possibility of allowing a person (someone she logically cannot have any control over) into her life because what if they throw her off her schedule? What if they mess every meticulous thing she's planned for herself and her mental stability? What if she loses her grip? Yes, it's plausible that she may find a partner who works perfectly with the way she needs things to be, and yes, you can headcanon that she heals and her OCD becomes "manageable" enough to have a stable relationship, but personally? I just like it when characters don't get to have stereotypical happy endings in which everything gets better through love and friendship and support -- like, yeah everyone loves to see their faves happy and all but eh... It's a bit of projection on my part! Some people don't get to heal and do all the things their disabilities prevented them from doing, even if we're given all this support and love. Some of us just have to find ways around these things, anything that works for us that makes our lives easier.

Sweetheart is queer but has a complex relationship with love. In a somewhat similar vein, Blonney has gone through every single letter of the LGTBQ+ community.

I tried my best to explain my thoughts on Sweetheart but at this point she deserves her own post because it's honestly a LOT, this single part was just too long so I cut it out entirely. Just trust me when I say she's queer and has a very complex relationship with love. In Blonney's case, we discussed the possibility of her being written as comphet and it got me to think a little about her. I see Blonney as the type of girl who presents as a straight bimbo, following the themes of her character and all, but who has constant crisis after crisis in the privacy of her bedroom, the only place she's allowed to be more than just a blondie. This constant journey questioning her orientations and gender happens entirely in her head and in private. I like to think that she just has these long monologues in her head. Sure, she's identified as straight her whole life, but maybe bisexual works better because there was that one girl she kept meeting under the bleachers. Oh, but maybe she's a lesbian, since all her boyfriends are just huge disappointments and none of them ever make her truly happy. Oh, but maybe that's just because she has bad taste in men, there was that one guy in class who keeps making her laugh after all. Ahh, this would be so much easier if she were a guy, her femininity is mostly performative after all. Ah, but she actually really loves pink and fashion... Nonbinary then? No, she's not the type to pick something so vague, it's one or the other. Oh, how about both? Genderfluid! Etc etc. If you ask her about how she identifies, she'll simply brush you off with a "What's it to you? That's none of your business, creep!" and move on, but this is something very personal to her. So far, she knows she likes being femme presenting and that she likes Jessica!

Eagle is a trans girl.

Have you guys seen those posts going around tumblr about how important it is that trans women exist because they fight for their own womanhood and girlhood in a world that constantly looks down upon feminine things and all women as a whole? Yeah. Yeah. Eagle being a scout that fights so hard to prove herself, the feelings of not belonging into the Boy Scouts and seeing how the Girl Scouts are created eventually, a space for her. The fact that she visits her father's grave so that he can see her grow up.

Kaalaa Baunaa, Oliver Fog, Medicine Pocket and Melania are probably bisexual, but they're super busy with work so they don't have time to address that.

Self-explanatory <3 I do like to think that Kaalaa and Medpoc are more chill about it, Kaalaa because she's a grown ass woman who is very mature, and Medpoc because they genuinely give no fucking shits about dating in general, so who cares about confirming whether they're bisexual or not. Oliver Fog is a little more flustered at the idea of exploring his orientation and whatnot, but it's tolerable. BUT MELANIA? I LOVE to think that she's FULLY aware that the MOMENT she acknowledges her bisexuality, she will have a crisis and then what will she do? She has 3 papers due next week and a heist this weekend, she can't possibly sit there wondering about liking girls! She's got things to do!

And here's the extra round of HCs that don't require that much text to explain or that lean towards being more silly!

Eternity has literally outlived the concept of gender. She/They royalty.

37 has QRPs instead. It Just Works. No one but herself and her partners understand the dynamics, though. As god intended <3

APPLe is a raging bisexual and has been spotted in many gay bars. Regulus is also bisexual.

The world would've been a better place if Bette was a butch lesbian.

Balloon Party and An-An Lee play with gender like its playdough.

Baby Blue is Not Cis and she's Not Straight either because none of that shit matters to her anymore, since she's been disconnected from reality and society for so long. She also doesn't care about labelling herself.

Diggers is trans, but no one can figure out which way exactly. It doesn't help that he refuses to clarify either. The same thing happens with John Titor, except she's very vocal about being a transwoman.

Bunny Bunny is bisexual but she hasn't realized this yet. In similar fashion, Horropedia is bisexual but he just forgets about it sometimes.

Druvis III as a trans woman goes hand in hand with Forget Me Not as a gay man. This is why they're both super divorced.

Leilani is pansexual because she prefers the colors of that specific flag over the bisexual one. Spathodea is pansexual because the personal distinction between pansexuality and bisexuality matters to her.

Tennant is bisexual because she can scam and seduce more people that way.

The Fool is nonbinary. Mf should've been born in the 2020's, I just KNOW he would've loved mirrorgender.

Zima is in the closet not out of shame but out of safety. Just in case.

Sotheby assumes that every girl in the world likes girls. So far no one has been able to prove her wrong because all she does is interact with other sapphic girls.

Pavia is nonbinary out of spite. But I also love transguy Pavia HCs so so so much, give that guy boobs, he would never get top surgery <3

Vertin is nonbinary too but she doesn't care about people knowing about it. She does, however, make the effort to be a little androgynous, as a treat for herself.

Madam Z and Katz absolutely had a Situationship going on during university. Katz was bicurious and Madam Z helped her experiment. Now the Situationship is between Madam Z and Constantine, the latter using Madam Z as a rebound after fumbling her relationship with Vertin's mother <- the machinations in my brain will astonish you.

TTT is genderfluid by virtue of being a picture on a TV, so I like to think she can just shift her appearance. In similar fashion, gender means nothing to Alien T and Voyager because they're aliens.

I specifically love the idea of all of the 1.2 gang joking about how Tooth Fairy is their token straight adult figure -- she's actually bi and asexual, but likes to keep that to herself so the kids can make their little jokes and have fun.

Enigma is gay and homophobic because his self-loathing is just that strong.

Turns out that the push Click needed to explore his own sexuality was getting killed on the battlefield, so now he's free to be gay. perhaps bicurious.

[lisbeth-kk]

Sherlock fandom

You Weren’t There

He never thought he would get here, doing what Ella wants him to do. Even Sherlock has nudged him in this direction. Gently, without any snark. 

“You’ll feel better, John. And no one has to see it. It’s a matter between you and the past,” Sherlock said softly and kissed his forehead.

So, here he is. Alone in 221B, pen in hand hovering over a sheet of paper. Ready to face and confront his parents, his only weapon a rollerball with black ink.

Mum and Dad

Once, I was your pride and joy. When and why did that change? Was it because of my lack of physical strength as a boy? My empathy for Harry when she came out as a lesbian? Or maybe it had to do with my trust issues. The issues you two are responsible for. Yes, you read that right. You. Both of you.

 I see now that you may have suffered from the same thing, because you never engaged with the other parents. They always thought you were happily married. You were always good at keeping up appearances.

Neither of you liked that I enjoyed music and wanted to learn to play the clarinet. You only allowed it because of my teacher who insisted that I’d join the music group, but you never cared. Not once did you attend a concert. You weren’t there. Never. Not for me. Not for Harry.

You’re both egocentric people who never should’ve had children. My miserable childhood notwithstanding, I’m glad of one thing; my life. Because I’ve finally found someone to love and who loves me in return. I know you won’t approve because it’s a man. The most brilliant, kind, loving, amazing, and extraordinary man who’s ever lived.

Because of your phobia against queerness, and my childish reluctance to disappoint you, I’ve been hiding my true self for decades. I even hurt this man, my Sherlock, for years since I was too afraid to come clean as a bisexual. And that fact haunts me the most. That I’m still having issues with this. I can’t blame you for all of it. I’m a grown man, but bad habits die hard.

This letter is supposed to be closure, a goodbye if you like. I have yet to decide if I want to send it to you. It’s about getting it all out, more for my sake than yours.

We married last month by the way. Harry was there. You weren’t invited. I know you never would’ve come anyway. Besides, I didn’t want you there. 

I’ve always detested weddings were everybody you know and are related to must be invited. Only people we love and care for were present.

You always had high hopes that I would marry when I became a doctor. It would be the perfect façade. Something you could brag about to your colleagues or whomever cared to listen to you.

If you ever get this letter, or if you already know, I bet everything I own that you’ve never mentioned it to anyone. To you, Harry and I are damaged goods. And when I write these words, I realise that I don’t care what you call me anymore, because I’m happy. For the first time in my adult life. Thanks to my husband, Sherlock Holmes.

John

He's mentally exhausted when he’s finished writing, and heads for the bathroom to wash off what feels like grime. The shower is like a cleansing and his entire body is relaxed. A considerable burden has been lifted off his shoulders and all that’s missing for this moment to be perfect is Sherlock.

When he opens the door to the bathroom, Sherlock waits for him with open arms. John’s heart skips a beat and his face lights up with the sight of his husband.

“I’m so proud of you, John,” Sherlock murmurs into John’s hair.

So, he’s read the letter. John left it on the desk for Sherlock to see, and he feels relief wash over him.

“It was easier than anticipated. Something I should’ve done ages ago.”

John cradles Sherlock cheek and locks eyes with him.

“Thank you for caring, for never faltering in your faith in me, for being there, for loving me” John says warmly.

“Always,” Sherlock retorts and kisses John’s palm tenderly before he seeks out John’s lips.

@flashfictionfridayofficial @totallysilvergirl @keirgreeneyes @calaisreno @phoenix27884 @a-victorian-girl @helloliriels @safedistancefrombeingsmart @gregorovitch-adler @raina-at @topsyturvy-turtely @peanitbear @7-percent @ninasnakie

[steviewashere]

Okay, I'm going to ramble to you about a theory I have, please excuse me.

So, a couple years ago when Letterboxd was reaching peak interest among people, Netflix made an Instagram post about each of the Stranger Things's characters top four movies.

Steve's top movie, I believe, was Animal House. Eddie's was Spinal Tap. Dustin's was The Neverending Story. Just so you know what I'm talking about.

Right. Anyway, they said Robin's number one favorite movie would be The Apartment (1960). This makes sense for her, as she likes black and white film, she's obviously big into film. So, kudos to Netflix for being on the dot, I suppose. Now, I just watched this movie tonight, I totally see the appeal. It's my favorite now, too.

But...I noticed something.

This is the main love interest in The Apartment, her name is Fran Kubelik:

She falls in love with the wrong guys, she's unhappy in the relationship she's in (I won't spoil the relationship she's in, so go watch this or look up spark notes or something), she's in love with the guy, but the guy doesn't love her. She tells the main character, C.C. Braxter, that she wishes she could love somebody like him because he's so nice. He rambles a lot, knows a lot of (almost pointless) information, feels hopeless in his romantic endeavors, is on his own—no family, no spouse, not a lot of friends—ultimately very unhappy with how his life is going.

Anyway. I, for one, think C.C. fits Robin's description quite a bit. Not in a lot of ways, but some key components of the character's personality and life match Robin's outlook on her own life. And, I got to thinking, well, who does Fran remind me of...

May I present Vickie, Robin's crush in season 4:

Now, Vickie is stuck in an unhappy relationship. At least from what I remember. She loves her boyfriend, her boyfriend isn't very into her...that kind of thing. She gets caught out by Robin in the military surplus store, which semi-resembles a major plot point in The Apartment (seriously, go watch it or look up what happens; I'm not spoiling it for you). But then, at the end of the season, she talks to Robin about being happy because she broke up with her boyfriend, and that makes Robin even more interested in talking to Vickie (which resembles another big plot point in The Apartment).

Another thing I noticed, though, is that Vickie and Fran resemble each other physically. The makeup, the fucking hair, even the facial structures are very similar. I mean...if The Apartment is Robin's favorite movie of all time...then, Fran has to be her lesbian awakening—yeah? Or maybe even first celebrity crush? Or maybe she just likes Fran because Fran reminds her of Vickie? Or what if she likes Vickie because Fran is her type?

My theory is that Robin loves The Apartment, yes absolutely, but also she likes Vickie because she has a fangirl crush on Fran.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, apologies for the ramble. I will go now.

Also, again, go watch The Apartment, it's free on Tubi with ads. (Everything on Tubi is free with ads. All you need is an account with an email and password. Go watch the damn movie.)

Also, also, I will say trigger warning for The Apartment if you do decide to watch it, there is a suicide attempt (that isn't shown, but the aftermath of that is), and a discussed suicide attempt. That's the only plot I'm spoiling. Now go watch it.

[barracuda-shark-games]

A bunch of questions about religion in this game: Do the MC's religious beliefs come up? Is there a state religion or highly prevalent religion, in either our own country or the one we're marrying into, and are they different or the same? Is MC expected to follow these beliefs? Did the MC ever even have a chance to think about religion and their personal beliefs? What about atheism? How prevalent is it, if people have even thought of it at all? Are atheists persecuted in any way? Is there any physical proof of gods' existence? Also, since there's a priest RO: What happens if our beliefs differ from those of the priest, if that's even an option? Would they still be an RO option, or locked out?

Great questions! I plan to include a codex that will unlock in chapter 1 and answer some of these questions more in-depth. Here's what I can tell you now though:

Religion will come up a lot in this game, but there's only one faith that really gets explored, and it revolves around worship of their Sun. That is the predominant faith on their continent, which includes both Arevikland (MC's homeland) and the Dawn Empire (their future spouse's homeland).

Some players may have already unlocked content that allowed them to set how their character feels about their faith already; whether they are practicing, and to what degree, or whether they've lost their faith or never really believed it at all. (Similarly, some players may have unlocked content already that lets them set their MC's sexuality, if they want; in the prologue, reading scrolls and books gets you some sneak peaks into some of the lore and history of the story!)

Religious persecution doesn't exist in their world, because the Sun is ultimately viewed as a neutral force. The Sun doesn't discriminate; it bestows it's light on everyone. The Sun is also present in everyone's world -- so it's not like there are people who don't believe in it. It's just a question of whether you worship it or not.

The priest RO worships the Sun, of course, but he doesn't mind at all if the MC doesn't share his faith, and being an atheist does not lock you out of romancing him. Your MC's faith or lack of it will create unique conversations with him, so it could be fun to try multiple playthroughs to see how your dynamic with him changes, but I wouldn't say that any path is better than the other; there's just some neat flavor distinctions.

(Also, fun fact: the priest and the mysterious noblewoman are the only two gender-locked ROs, with the priest being a gay man and the noblewoman being a lesbian. The rest of the ROs are bi/pan!)

Thanks for the message!

[mortalityplays]

It's obviously kind of an oversimplification to say Gomorra is 'about' homosexuality. It's about a lot of things. But it's also completely true and I would even possibly argue that it is the load-bearing point of the show.

On a macro level, the whole thing is about the endlessly bloody and destructive struggle of a life in organised crime. But even in that sense it puts a very specific thematic point on the way love, relationships and blood relations are constant casualties of this way of life, and the effect of that relentless human loss on the players who keep choosing war over peace. Ciro blazing his trail by killing women, children and parents specifically is not a 'kick the cat' villain beat, it's the whole point of the material. Genny being perpetually struck down by his own nuclear family because he is competition to them is part of it. Being in the life means eventually sacrificing those you love on its altar. You murder your wife, you send your son to die in the jungle, you send your father-in-law to prison.

As we absorb that, we're presented with this succession of queer characters living in the periphery of the story. One by one they're introduced to us, they explicate themselves as divergent from heteronormative sex and gender roles, and then we watch them die or disappear. It's heavily implied that the 'lesbian' from the tower blocks may be a trans man, but she doesn't exist in a context where articulating that is an option, and she dies in a white wedding dress inherited from her father. Conte's relationship with a trans woman can only exist behind closed doors. He dates her sister in public, he puts off introducing her to his mother, he appeals to his catholicism to distance himself from his own sexuality. Gege panics and folds because he's afraid for his boyfriend and his daughter. What do I care about the guy fucking you in the ass? Genny sneers, before he beats Gege to death with the watch that signifies his connection to a mob family. Much like the harrowing shit the show delves into around race, the message is 'there is no mercy here'. There is no oxygen for the articulation of queerness. It can only survive unspoken, in negative space.

And there's no argument that the show is about the negative space between Genny and Ciro. Neither of them know how to articulate their relationship. They're best friends, they're worst enemies, they grew up together, Ciro raised Genny, they're brothers, they're father and son. They use the word love. They also use the word hate. They come as close as anyone ever gets to putting bullets in each other's brains. They keep taking turns to ask each other can we do this now? and the answer is always not yet. Even when they're on the same side, they can only discuss the nature of their relationship by proxy, through their mutual relationships with others. Pietro is one. And I could write a fucking essay on the Enzo situation.

The negative space is physical, too. They hover around each other. They talk nose to nose. In the first season they can't stay apart, they grab each other, they pepper each other with kisses. After the life erases all of their visible human connections and sets them at odds, they're shot like orbiting planets. Empty space takes up entire frames between them. Ciro is fucking constantly looking at Genny, to the point that shots are composed around his furtive glances. After they finally reveal themselves to Analisa, Ciro catches Genny by the arm to pull him away from the meeting. That's not a gesture we ever see between other characters, especially in a context like that. They are constantly either 1 inch or 12 feet apart.

But most of all, there's negative space in the title. Gomorra. Yeah it's a play on Camorra. Don't worry about it. Don't think too much about it. Just ignore the primary association with that word that floats into your head when you hear it. It's absent from the show, right? It's absent from the life. This is a mafia show about two straight friends.

[waitmyturtles]

Jumping into the Cooking Crush familial fray...

I've lately been a bit behind on all my dramas, but I did see percolating over the weekend a great conversation among drama friends and fiends about interpretations of Asian parenting tactics, family values, interfamily communication, and intergenerational trauma regarding Cooking Crush.

This past weekend's episode 11 seemed to bring up a lot. I feel like one of my Reasons for Being on Tumblr is to share thoughts on Asian family dynamics, structures, and tensions regarding our beloved Asian dramas, so I am simply going to add a few extra thoughts to @neuroticbookworm's absolutely FANTASTIC post here that meditates on the ongoing conflict between Ten and his father.

Before I jump into NBW's amazing post, I want to linky-poo some previous writing that I've done on Asian cultural touchpoints in other shows:

Poor Bad Buddy got the Asian analytical treatment here and here

Only Friends and Mew's lesbian moms being Asian moms first, here

A meditation specifically on BBS's Dissaya and saving face, here (which, in regards to her conflict with Ming, we should note, directly led to her literally sending her son physically away from her to continue the family feud)

When I watch our beloved Asian shows, as an Asian-American, I am clicking unconsciously into certain assumptions about how Asian parents and children WILL behave when parents are called for in a show (I emphasized this specifically in my OF piece about Mew's moms). I expect there to be either filial piety present, or struggles with it. I expect to see elder hierarchy and/or issues with elder respect. I expect to see issues regarding saving face. I expect to see issues regarding conditional love, and how a child should act so a parent may boast and/or save face with their external social circles. I expect to see issues regarding independence and parental control over... just about everything in a child's life, from their education to their partners. (Think of King's parents in Bed Friend, and how his parents were ready to arrange a marriage for him; Tian's parents sending him to America in A Tale of Thousand Stars, etc.)

Shows that DON'T deal with these issues -- shows that have wonderfully understanding parents, like Thun's mom in He's Coming To Me, and Pete's dad in Dark Blue Kiss, are also realistic, because of course, nothing is universal, and there are understanding and unconditionally loving parents in every culture.

But most of the Asian shows that we watch have themes like filial piety and elder respect/control present, and it's up to the show's writers to figure out how these elements play into the plots that they're writing.

Through @neuroticbookworm's post, I see that some in the Cooking Crush fandom are calling for Ten's dad to apologize for his hypocrisy in calling Ten out for hitting Chang Ma, while we have seen Ten's dad slapping Ten.

I want to get into how Ten engages with his father in a second, because it's pretty rare in Asian shows to see a child so directly combative, so consistently, with a parent figure. But before that, NBW makes an excellent point with the following:

But, I understand it when my friends, and Asian characters in TV shows, don’t want to force things out in the open if it can be swept under the rug for the time being, because peace of mind in Asian households is fleeting and you would be wise to take what you get.

This is a very important point that those of us in the social services are hammered with -- in other words, how do individuals, as they are growing up, adjust their behaviors to keep the stability of their family bonds either strong, or at least not weak enough to break? How does a child learn to adapt and/or cope for the sake of the other older individuals in their families who DEMAND compliance with their own emotional needs?

Ten has a combative relationship with his father -- but he's still done everything his father has asked for, save for staying away from Prem. As @respectthepetty previously noted, Fire becomes submissive around pressure and high-tension individuals and situations -- because that's how he's learn to cope vis à vis his mother and his upbringing.

This framing -- these specific, generational, tension-informed family dynamics that we see ad nauseam in Asian dramas -- do not lead to an automatic assumption among Asian audiences that apologies would emanate from the parental generation. Especially because the previous generational paradigm is that children have and should go along with the flow of parental control and demands -- as Ten and Fire have so far done.

In Asian collectivist societies and mentalities -- to combat against that flow of control would lead to a breaking of the peace among the family unit, in NBW's words.

I would even go so far as to say that an apology from a parent is as much of a fictional ending fantasy as a perfect romantic ending. And damn, what we have to go through to get an apology. NBW brought up Double Savage, which was so awfully messy -- we got a parental apology only after a not-at-fault child had to unnecessarily apologize first. The show made the children work beyond basic emotional ethics to get that parental apology. That's how rare it is for us Asians to expect a parent to apologize. (And NBW notes so beautifully that even showmakers themselves may not know how to write apologies -- because they themselves may have never received one in real life.)

Considering all these family dynamics and tensions, getting a 180-degree admission of wrongdoing from an Asian parent is rare. And part of the fabric of the lives of us Asians is in sharing stories with our communities about the tensions, the trauma, the misunderstandings that we've faced from our families to be perfect and obedient in all aspects of our lives, as NBW so eloquently says about her country's culture, which includes tremendous control over the sexual lives of children. That's why I go to Asian shows over Western media -- so that I can experience some of that communing over commonalities in fiction.

I want to make one final quick point about Ten's behavior towards his dad, which we see is abrupt and combative. Ten's got some gumption to talk to his father like that, which, me likey, but it's rare to see in Asian shows. Of utmost importance to note is that their history is marked by a severely traumatic event in the death of Ten's mom, which is guaranteed to have had a lifelong impact on the bond between Ten and his dad, and colors their relationship. I know that's obvious by way of the dialogue, but what we see in this outburst is a kind of marked ending to a journey map of his life's experience that got him to the point of the fight. (@neuroticbookworm, I'm stealing your screenshots, thank yew, friend!)

This fight had A LOT IN IT. It was about saving face, about the embarrassment that Ten's dad knows the slapping event will cause on Ten and Ten's friends (and, frankly, Ten's dad himself). It was about Ten's childhood trauma in losing his mother and his anger with his father for his father's actions. It was a revelation that Ten's dad had actually acted, in his own way, and failed at saving Ten's mom. It was about Ten's performance in school, and how Ten says that he has indeed been keeping up with his father's standards. And a whole lot more.

I'm betting money on at least some people -- maybe many people -- in Asian audiences watching this and being critical of Ten for being so combative to his father, his father being Ten's provider for education and money. THIS CRITICISM IS VERY COMMON.

While Western fandoms may celebrate performances of individualism and confrontation, many in Asian audiences will not agree with that. They will see Ten being disrespectful to a parental figure that, in our cultural mores, would arguably automatically demand respect from the start through our notions of elder respect and hierarchy.

This is, in part, because many Asians see going against the flow of familial peace as disruptive. And, anthropologically -- who are we in the West to judge that?

That's why this scene is SO FUCKING HUGE. As an American, I'm like, fuck yeah, read this fucking dad out for filth. As an Asian, I'm like, WHOAAAAAAAAAA. For real.

AND? THE ENDING of this fight -- with Ten's dad making one actually good point about how Ten's punch will affect his friends?

That's collectivism again. That's Ten's dad helping Ten to grow in that moment and recognize that Ten's actions affect other people. That shit is complicated, and I believe it's 100% intended to be complicated.

The dad is still clearly a hypocrite. I do not think that we get that entire fight scene without the show commenting on Ten's dad's hypocrisy that one's actions have impacts on others. Ten's dad is not clicked into his own collectivism, and I believe the show calls him out for it. If that scene only wanted to call out Ten -- we would have only seen that last part about Prem and Prem's friends. We would not have gotten all that other backstory, all the threads in this incredible fight scene.

It was a hell of a well-done scene. And I very much believe that scene is symbolic of this entire show -- marketed as a comedy, friends! -- being insidiously about very complicated family bonds, and depicting the struggles of these bonds just brilliantly.

This show is DIGGING THE HELL into the family backgrounds of characters experiencing tremendous life changes -- including MEDICAL STUDENTS! THE CREAM OF THE CROP FOR ASIAN PARENTS! -- and showing how these pressures can make young adults crumble or resilient.

I didn't mean to write so long, but alas -- y'all talk about Asian families, and I gotta yap. Thank you for letting me throw some coins in the pot, and to offer some thoughts about what us Asians are clicking into in our beloved Asian shows.

Tagging @lurkingshan, @bengiyo, @respectthepetty, @heretherebedork, and @williamrikers for enlightening convos this weekend, and many thanks to my dear Asian friendo @neuroticbookworm for one hell of a meditation that I enjoyed and related to deeply.

[edai-crplpnk]

Some Team 7 + Team 10 chara sheets!

I did more chara sheets for my modern AU. (I did Team 8 + Sand Sibs here!) They don't appear much in the fics I already wrote, I don't know if they will in the future (maybe some plan for Naruto & Jiraiya fic one day?) but I have headcanons for them!

1 - The Girlfriends

Additional facts!

Sakura:

She's been best friend with Naruto since childhood and was quite scared to come out to him as a teen, not so much because she thought he'd reject her entirely but more because she was scared it would change their dynamics if they weren't boy friends anymore. Naruto was very excited about the whole thing, and supported her plenty in her transition.

She's training to be a surgeon and met Ino in med school.

In Seeing Stars, she is roommate with Lee and Tenten, but she'll move in with Ino later, and Gaara will take her place (well, more like he'll take Lee's bed room and there is one free now but-)

This is my "everyone is gay, everyone is disabled" AU and she is the token abled chara for now, but that might change if I get inspired. Not fully set on that.

Ino:

She's known she was a lesbian (although maybe not in this word) since very young. Also, at the time, Shikamaru and Chouji were perceived as such too, so that made them a trio.

She graduates to be a physical therapist around the year of Seeing Stars. She trained a lot on Sakura (lovingly) and Lee (more brutally).

Her endometriosis is somewhat managed by progesterone but she still has some flare-ups from time to time.

2 - The Boyfriends

Chouji:

They are Brazilian through their mother and Japanese through Chouza.

They struggled a bit figuring out their gender and tried presenting more masculine earlier in their transition, cutting their hair short and all that, but really didn't like it and, after some distress and talking it through with Ino and Shikamaru, let themself own that they were, really, a femboy. He is cool with masculine words (like being Shikamaru's boyfriend).

They considered stopping T after a while but liked how it felt for the most part, and it also helped manage PCOS symptoms.

He is rather sensory-seeking and loves being able to play around with textures, colours and sparkles.

He manages chronic pain with compressive clothes, knee braces and crutches.

Shikamaru:

Identified as a boy for about forever, and was very uncomfortable with being perceived as a lesbian with Chouji as a teen (which Chouji didn't really mind on his end), in a good part because of dysphoria, but also because he's never been into girls? (Dating Chouji has been a lot of confusion until they both figured themselves out, but it did feel right, somehow. Now he knows why.)

It might not have happened yet by the time of Seeing Stars because this shit takes time, but he is eventually getting phalloplasty and a cool tattoo sleeve on his left arm afterwards to hide the graft site.

Between his fatigue and Chouij's pain, they are a very cuddly pair and spending a lot of time in each other's presence at home. It's not always easy to go out and do things whatever they may be, but they make sure that the time they spend home together feels significant and not just routine.

3 - The Not Boyfriends

Naruto:

After some chaotic and pretty traumatic time in the foster care system as a baby and young child, he was taken in by Jiraiya, a relative of Kushina. He still lives with him as an adult, though they have a more roommate-y relationship than father/son.

He has struggled a lot with school the whole time, and it got worse after being separated from Sasuke (see below) and Sakura (because he failed and had to repeat some years along the way). He didn't graduate from high school in the end.

He does restaurant delivery by bike for a living, which provides him with both a lot of time spent working the hyperactivity out, and social contact with all the cooks in the neighbourhood (who all love him and have adopted him like a stray cat.)

He is very good friend with Kiba. They met in group therapy but Kiba is not great at that so they mostly meet to smoke together.

He is bi but probably too obsessed with Sasuke and the faith he have they'll be together again to really put himself out there for anyone.

Sasuke:

He and Naruto were close (and eventually sort of dating) as children and teens, but they got into a fireworks accident together where they both lost an arm (and Sasuke some hearing). Fugaku moved him to private schooling after the events, and they haven't reconnected since then.

He has sort of convinced himself he is straight, not even out of complicated feelings for his sexuality, but really just to be able to think he isn't and has never been into Naruto, because he resents him a lot for the accident and doesn't want to come to term with forgiveness or even just admitting he is still important to him.

He's tried using a prosthetic arm for years after his injury, but never quite found one he managed to work with. He also has important phantom pain that plays into that.

For now, he's joined the police like Fugaku. Let's all hope he'll get himself together eventually.

[alovelywaytospendanevening]

John Updike vs. Gay Literature

On May 23, 1999, John Updike published a review of The Spell in The New Yorker magazine. Written by Alan Hollinghurst, the novel is another of his tales of the gay underworld, an attribute that clearly displeased Updike:

The novels of the English writer Alan Hollinghurst take some getting used to; they are relentlessly gay in their personnel, and after a while you begin to long for the chirp and swing and civilizing animation of a female character. Save for the briefly and reluctantly glimpsed sister or mother, there are none. Boredom swoops in without hetero clutter to obstruct its advent. Novels about heterosexual partnering, however frivolous and reducible to increments of selfishness, social accident, foolish overestimations, and inflamed physical detail, do involve the perpetuation of the species and the ancient, sacralized structures of the family. Perhaps the male homosexual, uncushioned as he is by society's circumambient encouragements to breed, feels the lonely human condition with a special bleakness: he must take it straight. (Full review)

The backlash, as The New York Observer reported, was almost immediate:

“It really feels like an attack,” said Angels in America playwright Tony Kushner. Writer and activist Larry Kramer circulated an e-mail alert among gay writers on May 31, with certain of Mr. Updike’s lines highlighted. Novelist Sarah Schulman, who is a lesbian, said she wrote a letter to The New Yorker “the second I read the piece. It was so outrageous.” Craig Lucas, the writer of the movie Longtime Companion, also wrote a letter. “What he basically wanted to do is turn up his nose to distasteful sex,” he said. “This coming from the author of Couples! The idea that heterosexual sex is ‘sacralized,’ in his absurd phrase.” Mr. Kushner thought Mr. Updike knew what he was doing. “I have a suspicion that he thought he was being cute and naughty.” Mr. Kushner said Mr. Updike’s review “represents a kind of genteel tradition of disdain for homosexuals,” that has long been present at the magazine, going back to E.B. White and James Thurber. So far, none of the letters have appeared in the magazine; New Yorker editor David Remnick didn’t return calls for comment. A New Yorker spokesman said, “It’s our understanding that Hollinghurst was not displeased by the review.”

Asked about the controversy, Updike seemed to miss the point of the criticism:

He said he had never read Mr. Hollinghurst before, and that when he did, this was his reaction. “As with all books that you are reviewing, you try to give your impression of the atmosphere within the book, which seemed kind of gloomy and pointless to me,” he said. “So I’ll just have to withstand whatever letters come.” It’s not like he wanted to make generalizations about homosexuality. “I’d be happy not to discuss it,” he said. “Hollinghurst made it kind of tough. It makes it the unavoidable topic of discussion. It’s all about it. And for me to avoid his own emphasis would certainly be not doing my reviewer’s job.”

Colm Tóibín, another notable gay author, further bashed Updike’s views on homosexuality:

If you look at it carefully, that view of his will eventually eat into his reputation. Because his own elaborately confident and super-developed heterosexuality is actually an impediment to the proper writing and it eats at his sentences at times and it eats at his books… If you start reading Updike very carefully you start reading the astonishing boasting about sexual life which I found much more offensive than he does Hollinghurst’s book.

Years later, Hollinghurst himself spoke about the review:

Well, it was deplorable in various ways, but I also remember being very amused by it. There was this person who had gone to rather extraordinary lengths in his details of heterosexual sex and for whom the analysis of sexual behavior seemed to be so fundamental to his work as a novelist. But who was giving the impression in this review that everything he knew about homosexuality he gleaned from my novels, like he had never come across it in real life at all. I thought it was absolutely extraordinary, therefore so absurd, the old way he put it about the animating chirp of the female presence or something that he so missed in my books. It was terribly silly. It showed that he had chosen to emphasize his own failure with this large and interesting aspect of human behavior.

[soup-of-the-daisies]

staghunter (orion/harry) enthusiast here who hates every single fic for them because the meta sucks or is plotless in general but I didn't know how to elaborate on it until I saw your post on how their dynamic, at it's best, would probably be literally just prongsfoot and it busted my third eye wide open. best friends who are soooo incredibly intimate physically and emotionally that you could call them lovers but really, even that label is inadequate. they would wear each other every day if they could type of friendship. faces so close they make other people uncomfortable, but also the energy in the room would feel weird if they weren't on each other's laps 24/7.

anyway, my two cents— for prongsfoot, i do agree that james as an only child would be more possessive, marking sirius liberally through action such as biting, sitting close, etc., the clingiest limpet in any universe... girl!james would absolutely be the girl best friend who would get so much hate from sirius' partners bc she acts like that. lesbian prongsfoot who need to provide heirs for their family would definitely put their husbands through it (if they could invent magical IVF to cut the middleman entirely they would)

while for staghunter it would definitely be orion, since harry has had the experience/memory of ron & hermione's friendship... he'd be a bit more repressed with his emotions as a posh bloke in post-ww2 britain, so he'd mark his territory thru official documentation. photos, paintings, a building donated in their honor, a name change, blood pacts published in the paper, soul bonds duly registered, another bonding ritual that may be slightly illegal but visible to anyone in the know, and so on. I like to think that orion would be a product of their time regardless of gender so skinship isn't as big, but then they don't need to be, as harry gets and appreciates the big grand gestures

(in any universe though, slash, genderbent, or otherwise, if harry and ron are alive together in any timeline they'd be the codependent ones im so serious that matters to me)

Hello anon. I love you.

I agree with you on all points. There’s a reason why I’m incredibly fond of Prongsfoot, Ronarry, and Harmione: codependent best friends to lovers where nothing really has to change, they just kiss (more), and in the case of Ronarry and Harmione Harry becomes a bit more physically affectionate… yeah. I also love it when Harry’s James-genes pop out in Ronarry and Harmione and he does ridiculous things to prove his love and adoration (I’ve seen one fic where that happened, for Harmione), because Harry would, you know? He’d give them the moon if he could.

And yes, Orion would be the James in the Staghunter (I actually associate that one more with Orion/James, but I can’t think of another one on the fly so I’ll go with Staghunter for Orion/Harry here), but then more of a product of his time and childhood. It’s the mutual kind of adoration you also see in Prongsfoot. Fancy robes, jewellery, but also ‘official’ means like (as you said) documentation, announcements, blood-pacts… they’re in each other’s pockets at school, absolutely obsessed with one another.

I like the way the Orion&Harry bromance is characterised in wear me like a locket around your throat, though Orion is a bit too… sweet? I suppose? For my tastes. He’s quite the bean in that one, even though he does get a lot of depth (and the fic hints at as to why he became a horrible father), but the codependency and mutual love between him and Harry is so lovely. It’s other/better half to the max. I have my favourites (for het Staghunter, Future’s Past is a good one; it’s AU enough for the characterisations to be believable) and there are ones that feel Too Much and Wrong, but that’s what you get with a rarepair I think. I also need good/fun Tom Riddle characterisation if he’s present, so that also makes me pickier.

So yeah ♥️♥️ Thank you sm for your ask, I love talking about them. They’re not popular enough I swear (even in the bromance way), despite the fics often being quite popular.

[clearwingedmaven]

So. Since I've noticed quite a bit of Supernatural fans(or Jensen Ackles fans) are coming on board for Tracker Episode 12, decided to put together a little crash course to help out if needed.

Tracker is... kinda like a procedural? It's not a typical procedural, it's more like something akin to the Fugitive from the 60s, or Reacher(circa now, on Amazon Prime). It's one man carrying the show, but it gets a little complicated from there.

The show focuses around Colter Shaw, a drifter type and "rewardist" who grew up in the Sierra National Forest after his father had a psychotic break and moved the family there. He's an expert survivalist and tracker because of this, and roams the country helping people find, well, people.

However! The twist comes from the backstory. Ashton Shaw(the father) died mysteriously, and Russell Shaw(Jensen Ackles), is the prime suspect in Ashton's death(According to Colter). But we don't know everything. (It's been spoon fed very sparingly, so, we don't know).

The series is admittedly interspersed between past and present, with Colter pursuing various jobs in finding people.

We also have such storylines as:

-Hey, what if this drifter helped take down an actual cult

-For my first episode I will leap with you from this cliff with a bullet rattling around in my shoulder

-Uncovering corruption in a really fucked up town and family and being shot at and stabbed repeatedly

-Dark school conspiracies(TWICE), but also dealing with abusive people

-Dismantling illegal poker rings and dealing with lawyer corruption

-Visa schemes and illegal fighting rings

-That poor horse and the dark shit of the horse racing world

-The Fetanyl trade and trying to be better than your past

-Hey what if basically you were kidnapped just cause and missing for three years (Actual horror)

-Man goes skydiving after a missing plane with people in it, comically overprepared and basically a chase through the Idaho Wilderness.

-I reunited with my sister-Oh this got DARK. (I think it's trying to play on the Theranos scandal? They name drop it in the beginning of the episode)

You will encounter such characters as:

Teddi and Velma Bruin: An older lesbian couple who serve kind of Colter's handlers, they have a lot of dogs and are in general big Worried Mom energy.

Bobby Exeley: A double amputee computer whiz, is often fed up with Colter's bullshit but loves him irregardless. Was saved by Colter from something, but he refused to elaborate.

Reenie Green: Colter's ex, badass lawyer extraordinaire. Has taken out grown men with pipes, will literally run through red tape to help clients and Colter. Also fed up with Colter but enjoys working with him.

Dory Shaw: The little sister. She's gone onto be a college professor, like their parents, but her field is physics. Works in Wyoming, lived with their aunt and uncle after Ashton Shaw died. Gives Colter crap, but is a badass in her own right.

Russell Shaw: Yup, Jensen Ackles himself. The big brother. Who Colter suspects killed Ashton, but has been calling Colter throughout the show to try and talk to him. He joined the military, but other than that, we don't know much about him yet.

And that's all, I think? Without too many spoilers. The fandom is admittedly small online, and on Ao3, as, as of May 1st, there's one total fic for the fandom.

Hope that helped. And enjoy Tracker before Sunday night!

[erinelliotc]

About me

Welcome to my safe space! (mostly an Ed, Edd n Eddy blog)

I'm Érin Elliot Eddward Marion Mason (I'd appreciate being called Double D, Edd or Dudu (Edd's nickname in Brazil) too ^^). My pronouns are they/them and he/him. I'm nonbinary trans (pomogender, quoigender, agender, genderqueer, libramasc and boyflux).

I'm Brazilian, 24 years old (born in June 15th, 2000), autistic, Double D kinnie (most of my Double D's analyses are me projecting myself onto him) and EddEddy shipper. Ed, Edd n Eddy is my biggest special interest! I'm both an Eddy apologist and an Edd apologist, I'll defend these bitches with all my heart and soul.

You can find my edits here! (they're mostly EEnE edits)

You can get to know about my history with Ed, Edd n Eddy here!

My fanarts

My EEnE content (my own posts and my comments on reblogs)

And ALL my EEnE content here (includes reblogs)!

MY FUTURE EEnE PROJECTS:

My EEnE fanfics and comics:

Stories that will be like episodes of the show, but with more drama and/or romance, with my headcanons, and usually longer. All of my stories will be EddEddy, either as the main focus or just in the background, so if you don't like this ship it's better not to read them. Depending on the direction the story takes it can take place in an alternate universe (AU) because I can have different ideas and headcanons that can't coexist. Some stories may contain darker and/or NSFW (+18) content and will be appropriately marked and tagged as such

Self-insert AU where I'm Edd and Eddy's adopted kid. I'll also add other characters / OCs that are insertions of real people from my life

Short comics about real stories and events with my self-insert OC and real people from my life (mainly with my best friend Mel), but adapted and set within the universe of EEnE

Self-insert AU where I'm Edd's younger sibling (same age as Sarah and/or Jimmy)

I also love:

Will Wood

Deltarune/Undertale

Arcane

Death Note

Gravity Falls

Infinity Train

The Owl House

Over The Garden Wall

The Office

Sally Face

Five Nights at Freddy's

Demon Slayer

Little Witch Academia

Amphibia

Favorite 90s/00s cartoons from my childhood:

Ed, Edd n Eddy

SpongeBob SquarePants

The Fairly OddParents

Phineas and Ferb

The Powerpuff Girls

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

Codename: Kids Next Door

Courage the Cowardly Dog

Dexter's Laboratory

Pucca

Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi

Hey Arnold! (I never really watched it, but for some reason I've always loved content related to this cartoon, like videos and fanarts)

Things I like: pink, yellow (golden and mustard), blue-green/green-blue colors, cuteness, weirdness! weird stuff! weird people!, organization, archiving data, ducks, cats, roly polies/pill bugs, caterpillars, snails, moths, bees, mushrooms, dandelions, sunflowers, rainbows, soap bubbles, autumn/spring, cloudy and rainy weather, the fire element, nature/living beings in general, fairies, plushies, taking pics, editing videos, writing, music, cartoons (especially 90s/00s), bubble wrap, LGBTQ+ content (especially lesbian/sapphic/wlw), hot chocolate, chocolate milk, fries, neugebauer chocolate (milk), coca-cola, brownie, savory food, likes mealy apples more than crunchy apples, puns, spending time alone, working on my personal projects, dedicating myself to my hyperfixations, wearing comfy clothes (usually pajamas), brain-training games, learning, stimming, singing

Things I dislike: changes, lack of order, jumpscare/scares, interruptions, too many people, leaving my house, cold/winter, sun, beach, traveling, public speaking/presentation, passion fruit, tomato, guava paste, white chocolate, cold savory food, get dirty eating, sticky and creamy substances on my skin, physical activity, bugs climbing/walking on me without my consent and prior preparation, people yelling at me and/or being harsh/agressive with me, not being understood

Some of my areas of interest are:

Information Science (Archivology and Library Science)

Psychology (and health area in general)

Biology

Journalism

Design

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Linktree (all my links): https://linktr.ee/ErinElliotC

Carrd:

Português: https://erinmini.carrd.co/

English: https://erinmini.carrd.co/#carrdeng

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@erinelliotc

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Esquikoko

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/pato__magico

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ErinElliotC

Twitter (main account): https://twitter.com/AutisticQueer

Twitter (art account): https://twitter.com/DoubleDrawings

This was my main blog (Esquikoko) but I don't use it anymore

I have an abandoned blog to post pictures of roly polies

Read this in case I die disappear from social media

Some other stuff about me:

I'm a Visual Communication (Graphic Design) Technician (I don't really work with that though)

I'm a crocheter (still learning)

Undergraduate program: currently studying Library Science (4/8 semesters); I also studied Psychology for 5/10 semesters and Journalism for 1/8 semester

Height: 5'1 (1,55 m)

MBTI: ISFJ

Enneagram: 9w1

Instinctual Variant: sp/so

Moral alignment: Neutral good

Orientation: Asexual, aromantic and lesbian

Astrological sign: Gemini (sun), Cancer (rising), Sagittarius (moon)

Favorite musical artists/bands:

Will Wood (and the Tapeworms)

Cavetown

Grouplove

Miracle Musical

Lemon Demon

Melanie Martinez

Aurora

Baby Fuzz

Hungry Hearts

The Living Tombstone

Mitski

MARINA

Toby Fox

Oingo Boingo

P!nk

Pitty

Green Day

Lily Allen

Lady Gaga

Tally Hall

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff. Ravenclaw would be my second house

Spirituality: Witch and agnostic

Get to know a little about my musical taste here!

Special interests/current, recurrent and/or fixed hyperfixations: Ed Edd n Eddy, Will Wood, autism, mental disorders, genetic mutations, organization, Deltarune, Arcane, Death note, Gravity Falls, Cellbit, The Owl House, Over The Garden Wall, The Office, Sally Face, intersexuality, lesbianity, transgenerity, asexuality, cats, barism (specialty in making coffee), Brazil Avenue (Avenida Brasil)

[ae-azile]

In your latest Progression chapter I loved how Namphueng did the cake announcing her sexual identity. It was such great idea and now I wonder what other characters would make as the same cake? What are others sexualities/sexual identities? Do they identify somehow other than gay? Kinn and Chay are gays but what about others? Is Porsche bi or pan? What about Tankhun and Arm? Also Kim expressed somehow being genderfluid and he is definitely demisexual or grey asexual. I think it would be extremely interesting for all of them to have some kind of discussion like that.

Namphueng loved her cake too LOL. She was very proud of it. I spent a while thinking of how the cake would look. While I couldn't find a cake that described what I wanted her to do, I did look up some reference pics for inspiration. Here are several that kind of fit some aspects of the style!

If you mix the aspects of these cakes all together, you sort of get what Namphueng accomplished. Girl worked HARD. It was so important to her because:

1. She remembers her first love, or at least bits and pieces. She remembers loving her deeply. I think creating a cake so elaborate and more suited for a small wedding was her way of committing to her true self, along with finding the woman she loved and clearly still loves.

2. She may have struggled with being her true self or being open about her relationship first time around. She isn't doing it anymore because every bit of her autonomy and happiness was kept from her.

So, yes! In Progression, Namphueng very much identifies as a lesbian. As for the other characters, some are probably up for interpretation, but I guess this is how I view them (at least for this fic).

Kim: I also see him as demisexual or sex positive ace. I think he is enjoying sex with Chay. A LOT. But he can only come to enjoy sex if he is in love with and feels comfortable with the person he is sleeping with. Since he struggles with being so guarded, Chay is his first. I think his romantic orientation is likely panromantic, but his trauma and seeing so many people in his family get hurt/killed likely made him push the idea of romance away for a long time.

As for the potential for him being gender fluid, I don't think it is something he feels like he needs to find a label for, but wouldn't deny it if asked. I think he does certain things and presents himself in a way that feels right. He likely leans towards more masculine presentations, but likes light makeup on occasion, doesn't align with overt masculinity or societal expectations for men, etc. I think he also likes looking good for himself, and sometimes looking softer and slightly more feminine is something that appeals to him.

Overall, I believe he struggles with labels for multiple reasons. He doesn't like following traditional or strict expectations, nor is he great at communicating clearly (although he is getting a lot better). I think he also falls into this limbo in between labels, so he doesn't know what to make of it. He struggles with seeing himself as asexual (especially now) since he is having a very enjoyable sex life with Chay. He should probably should look into demisexual. I think it will be something that eventually comes up, even though he doesn't feel a NEED to find a label. However, an explanation and a sense of knowing he isn't the only one may help. 🙂

Porsche: I think he is probably pan, but could also be bi. Episode 8 showed him express minor anxiety over dating a guy, although I don't know if it was the emotional or physical aspect that worried him more. Regardless, I tend to categorize him a little more as pan since that tends to take a meaning of "experiences sexual attraction regardless of gender". However, I also see him as demiromantic.

Khun: Despite his and Kim's personalities being extremely different, I also see him as demisexual, panromantic. Part of his demisexuality likely stems from immense trauma since he needs to be with someone who understands him and he's comfortable with, but I don't think the gender of that person matters. In fics, I often mention him having a girlfriend prior to his kidnapping. I believe I did in this fic too. Now, he's very much in love with Arm. And like Kim, he also might be gender fluid, but doesn't over think it and just does what feels right.

Arm: He's a hard one, but he could be demisexual too, and he may lean towards homoromantic. That isn't to say he doesn't like to be seductive though. He takes his shirt off when drunk for a reason. However, I do think he was repressing a lot of desires until he became more comfortable with Khun. So yeah, maybe demisexual/homoromantic.

Pol: He says he's straight! But I also think he is a guy who needs and deserves a lot of love. I don't see him hooking up with just any woman or being in a FWB situation. He is probably heteroromantic, but does find a lot of satisfaction in platonic love too.

Vegas: gay, but demiromantic.

Pete: demisexual, biromantic

Macau: He's saying he's straight in this fic, but I don't see him sleeping around like his brother likely used to.

Kinn and Chay : gay and gay

Milan's sexual and romantic orientation will also become more clear in flashbacks as well.

Thank you for the ask! 🩵

[lillified]

Hello! I hope you don't mind this, but I've been trying to better understand He/Him lesbianism, but google isn't very helpful and I've heard a lot of explanations and I wanted to hear your side of it since your Megatron seems to align with that? Your explanations tend to make more sense to my neurodivergent brain 😅

-Bi lady trying to better understand the peeps around her ❤

I mean, I’m probably not the best person to explain this and you’re probably better off asking someone who is one, since everybody’s reasoning and experience is different. I’ll try to give a basic overview to get you started, but I really can’t claim to speak to everyone, if even very many, people’s experience:

The basic principle is that pronouns are social arbitrage and are indicative of how other people in society perceive you, but they are limited to describe the scope of gender experience. you may not be a man, but still identify strongly with masculinity and “benefit” from some of the social consequences of presenting and performing masculinity—or, in many cases, the rigid expectation of femininity is just way too narrow and suppressive. The tragic fact is there really isn’t a lot of precedent or understanding for women who aren’t feminine or perform feminine roles, and those expectations are so ingrained that they infect the core of people’s expectations of womanhood. I’ve heard butches describe that sometimes it’s just easier to use masculine identifiers because it helps people understand, which is something I’ve experienced to a lesser degree (even now as I’ve become less ambivalent with my gender I still frequently call myself “guy” and “man” and similar things).

All that being said, presenting socially as masculine doesn’t necessarily change who you are, or how you experience the world. Butchness is very performative and masculine, but deep down most butches have a connection to women and femininity that is extremely strong. Womanhood is an isolating and often dangerous experience, and, historically, lesbianism isn’t JUST about relationships, but the effort of women to find protection and support from sexism, oppression and violence within themselves. Being butch, even to the point that you “pass” and don’t experience as much targeting for being feminine, doesn’t erase your connection and experience with the feminine, and with womanhood. Whether you are cis or trans, your experience of the world and your treatment at the hands of other people has, and probably will always be, affected by that overarching social expectation, and often detriment, of womanhood.

Being butch is a personal celebration of the fluidity of one’s gender and the performance of masculinity, but just because it rejects the appearance of the feminine, that doesn’t mean it dislikes or “rejects” femininity. This is something I’ve struggled to reconcile for myself, but it feels demonstrably true. Your physicality, appearance, and social role may appear masculine, but manhood is more than just short hair and pants, just like womanhood is more than long hair and dresses. They’re simple blanket statements intended to describe a range of human experience that is extremely vast, both socially and biologically. Your pronouns can describe you to strangers and peers, but they don’t always represent your experience and reality, and that’s where you get he/him lesbians, who are masculine in performance, but feel a connection and allegiance to womanhood that is far deeper than someone who identifies as a man might.

that being said in Megatron’s case (can’t believe we got here from a transformers question), while I use he/him pronouns for him, they aren’t his only ones, nor are they even the ones I’d say he’d choose. I see him as ambivalent, and a performer; he presents a very exaggerated, masculine persona to hold power and communicate strength, so masculinity is something others see and expect from him. In a situation where power games weren’t mandatory, I could honestly see him preferring other pronouns. I guess that does kind of tie in with what I described, lol.

Anyway, I hope this helped, at least a little bit! I got kinda rambly there, apologies. I feel like the nightmare scenario of guy whose interests include gender study nonsense and transformers. once again, I am just one person and I’m definitely not the best qualified, so please seek out other material if you’re confused, and remember that everybody’s relationship with gender is completely different!

[wtowingedtragicobsidian]

BDS Gender & Orientation HCs pt2 PM

~if a character/commentary is not included I’m just assuming they’re cis/straight~

Akutagawa:

Orientation:|Gay, Demiromantic| Doesn’t get romantically attached to people, with a few notable exceptions. He has never looked upon a woman with lust in his life and genuinely doesn’t understand the appeal (lol). He does understands the appeal of men but his fear of physical vulnerability tends to negate him acting on it.

Higuchi:

Orientation: |Bi| The Akutagawa’s were her bi awakening.

Chuuya:

Orientation: |Gay| Exclusively likes men. He was self-conscious about it (possibly with some self-loathing) when he was younger but then he met Albatross and the Flags, and they assured him it was cool (half of them were queer anyway). Since then, he’s been secure in his identity, but keeps pretty quiet about it as he’s a very internally guarded person who likes to keep his personal life private. Still, he won’t compromise for others’ comfort and can be quite outspoken if somebody’s making unsavory remarks—regardless of if they’re directed at him or not.

*Chuuya has a soft spot for the younger queer kids in the mafia and tries to subtly wingman for them. He’s like a brother figure to a lot of them and is more than willing to talk with them about their identity or offer comfort, regardless of how close they might be. (yes, in his own way he’s trying to pay forward what the Flags did for him.)

Tachihara:

Orientation: |Queer(pan)| Had never really given sexuality much thought and just assumed he was straight—and then he met Gin and was like ‘oh, guess not’. Since then, he has been more in touch with his sense of attraction.

Gin:

Gender: |Genderfluid, Demigirl| Mostly use neutral forms of expression/address, however, for as much gender euphoria that causes, they do get a bit antsy if they haven’t been able to express either of the binaries for a while. Conveniently their work/life balance lets them express their gender with relative ease, presenting femininely (and using feminine or neutral pronouns, though feminine is more common) while off work—and conversely presenting masculinely/androgynously while a work (and using neutral and masculine pronouns, though neutral ones are generally preferred). She doesn’t tell many people about her gender and often lets them assume —usually enjoying the mixed results and ambiguity—unless they are very close with her (so the Black Lizards and her brother know).

Mori: (When I was writing this, I told myself I wasn’t going to touch this one, but then I stared at his hairline too long and realized he would be wilding more interesting—to me specifically—if he was ace, so-)

Orientation: |Asexual, Demiromantic| Fascinated with sex and human sexuality to an almost fetishistic degree and is more than willing to exploit/abuse those attachments in others—he likes to watch the fallout and sadistically enjoys the exertion of his power. BUT, he doesn’t feel that kind of attraction himself, which may be a contributing factor to why he’s so interested in it.

He does, however rarely, feel romantic attraction. He’s had one(1) notable crush and its fucked with him ever since.

Kouyou:

Orientation: |Bisexual-sapphic| Despite (in the strictest sense of the term) being bi, she only entertains advances from women and will identify as lesbian if asked. She did have a notable romance with a man in her youth and while it was genuine attraction, it burned her forever—since then she has shunned the romantic advances of men. After that formative heartbreak all her entanglements have been sapphic in nature, but she’s still very wary of romance and ‘love’, so they have been few and far between; mostly consisting of short lived situationships.

Q:

Gender:|Nonbinary| Uses neutral pronouns. They get a right kick watching people fumble to trying to figure out how to categorize them.

[a-x-ce]

Keep rereading that romance in OP post 'cause honestly it has me thinking about the current options for endgame partnerships.

I put Kaya and Usopp as the most obvious 'cause it literally is. I mean hell we just saw Kaya and a panel of Usopp's 3 veggie friends with them literally pointing out how lucky he is to have a woman like her waiting for him to come home and heal any of his wounds...like please. I miss the days when it was shown how often he thought about her too, making snow statues of her, drawing her, stuff like that.

It's also been heavily implied there WILL be more between Sanji and Pudding. I don't know to what degree Oda will go with them but at some point she has to return his memory of her kissing him, and his reaction to that 'cause hello, that's the first woman to fully and completely return his affection. I know Viola seemed close but I just don't think they got enough in Dressrosa to go further and not much else to imply they'll have more chances to see each other. Pudding has so much set-up to stay a part of Sanji's story past everything that happened in WCI, I firmly believe he'll be the one to save her once the Straw Hat's finally face the Blackbeard pirates.

Less certain but there's also Hiyori and Zoro. I'm not sold on it just yet 'cause Zoro did not care when they parted. I know a lot of people see him and Tashigi and like...eh. All Zoro sees when he's forced to interact with her is Kuina, and Zoro wasn't in love with Kuina, she's his rival and his ''goal''. In order for Tashigi and Zoro to work even remotely that would have to be addressed in full. Semi-likely he ends the series with no partnership though.

I think Chopper's only option is Milky LOL (reindeer mink from Zou) 'cause like...yeah, he can't and doesn't find any appeal in human women, and he's been thoroughly and completely rejected by actual reindeer. He's not even physically or mentally compatible with full animal reindeer anymore thanks to his DF. He could talk with them sure, but would he find a life of a common animal fulfilling if he were try and return to it for partnership? Highly doubtful. Otherwise, Chopper endgame has no love interest, 'cause he's baby (I know he's canonically 16 but shut up I can't accept it).

Two characters in the SHs that are obviously not getting any endgame relationships are Brook and Jinbe, one's literally dead and the other is already well into his adult life having had no prior showcases of being in or pursuing a partnership. It'd be kinda weird to shove one in for Jinbe at this stage in the series or going forward when we're in the final saga with few arcs left.

Luffy remains our aroace king and I hope he stays that way but IF Oda were to pull a Dragon Ball on us then he's done enough work for Hancock to make her the most obvious choice. She loves him, and he at least respects her, which isn't love but who knows. Luffy is not incapable of deep love as clearly shown in this series, it's just not been of the romantic kind and he feels no sexual attraction toward anyone. But honesty if Luffy ends the series with no clear partner I'll cry tears of joy he avoided the shounen curse of getting a bad haircut before being married off with kids for the inevitable sequel.

Nami is a lesbian hasn't been presented with a clear partnership either. So many people ship her with 1 or more men of the crew but aside from that she hasn't interacted enough with any characters that make it clear if she has an endgame partnership. However, there is still time I think...'cause we still don't have all of Nami's backstory. We still know nothing about Oykot and Bellemere finding Nojiko and Nami in those ruins, the fact she was smiling/laughing through the despair (very D. coded) and so that leaves it open for more story for her, where a potential love interest could still be introduced. Otherwise, she may also end the series not paired up.

I'd also throw Robin and Franky in the group of 'no ending partnerships' but for different reasons. Franky because he, like Jinbe, has gone most of his life not being presented as pursuing or caring about that. Franky already has a family, the Franky family, consisting of all his brothers and sisters. He's content with his ragtag-found family back in Water 7, he's always been happy with that dynamic since he was raised that same way by Tom with Kokoro (who were not a couple, just business partners/friends) and Iceburg. If Franky having a love interest was something Oda cared about he'd have sprinkled in any kind of element of interest in his backstory, or showcased him having any type of reaction in the current story from his introduction. But there's nothing, the only reaction of excitement Franky ever showcases is toward cool-ass tech and Vegapunk LOL

Robin because she's only just now fully coming into her own thanks directly to the Straw Hats. Robin's been isolated and burned by people her whole life, it took the events of Enies Lobby for her to FINALLY accept that her crew loves her unconditionally. For her to go from only accepting and loving them thanks to a lot of work to falling for some other person she's met or yet to meet would be interesting to say the least. She'd have to have a good relationship with that person already to some degree to open up to them. Which is why there are people who are open to the idea of her being with Law (they also have several similarities akin to Pudding and Sanji, plus all the time he was with them through multiple arcs has made the crew comfortable with him, including scenes with them specifically). But otherwise, I don't see her in a relationship either in the end of the series.

I guess in conclusion I can only really see 3, maybe 4 out of the 10 current SHs being in a relationship by the time OP ends. I can also see an ending where none of them are ever officially paired off but instead it's left open on where everyone went after completing their dreams/goals and parting ways as the Straw Hats. I'll be interested in seeing what Oda does with them compared to how he left Roger's crew.